Daniel Goleman

While there is ample room in [Martin] Gardner's descriptions of the personal intelligences for insight into the play of emotions and mastery in managing them, Gardner and those who work with him have not pursued in great detail the role of feeling in these intelligences, focusing more on cognitions about feeling. This focus, perhaps unintentional, leaves unexplored the rich sea of emotions that makes the inner life and relationships so complex, so compelling and so often puzzling. And it leaves yet to be plumbed both the sense in which there is intelligence in emotions and the sense in which intelligence can be brought to emotions. -Goleman, Emotional Intelligence

Self-absorption in all its forms kills empathy, let alone compassion. When we focus on ourselves, our world contracts as our problems and preoccupations loom large. But when we focus on others, our world expands. Our own problems drift to the periphery of the mind and so seem smaller, and we increase our capacity for connection - or compassionate action.

Rap lyrics, like any poem, essay, or news story, can be seen as delivery systems for “memes,” ideas that spread from mind to mind, much as emotions do. The notion of a meme was modeled on that of a gene: an entity that replicates itself by getting passed on from person to person.

Memes with particular power, like “democracy” or “cleanliness,” lead us to act in a specific way; they are ideas with impact. Some memes naturally oppose others, and when they do, those memes are at war, a battle of ideas…

Memes may one day be understood as mirror neurons at work. Their unconscious scripting steers much of what we do, particularly when we are on “automatic.” But the subtle power of memes to make us act often eludes detection.

Consider their surprising power to prime social interactions. In an experiment one group of volunteers heard a list of cue words that referred to impoliteness, such as “rude” and “obnoxious,” while another group heard cue words like “considerate” and “polite.” They then were put in a situation where they had to deliver a message to someone who was talking with another person. Two out of three of those primed for rudeness butted in to interrupt, while eight of ten primed for politeness waited the full ten minutes for the conversation to end before speaking up. -pp. 45-46, Social Intelligence, Daniel Goleman

There is perhaps no psychological skill more fundamental than resisting impulse. It is the root of all emotional self-control, since all emotions, by their very nature, lead to one or another impulse to act. The root meaning of the word emotion, remember, is "to move."

Daniel Goleman

Source: Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, Pages: 81